Rahman to be first Global Ambassador to fight TB

Noted composer A R Rahman was today appointed as the first Global Ambassador in the worldwide fight against tuberculosis, which claims two million lives worldwide every year, including a sizeable number in India.

The announcement came at a press conference called by the Stop TB Partnership and the World Health Organisation in a committee room of the House of Commons.

Accepting the task, Rahman, who composed the score for the hit musical Bombay Dreams and which makes its US debut in New York March 29, said "Art is not only for entertainment but also for healing process."

"Most people in industrialized countries think tuberculosis is a thing of the past," he added. "But we are actually in the throes of the largest TB epidemic in history, with more people sick and dying from the disease than ever before. It is urgent we break the public silence about that."

Rahman pointed out that TB is completely curable with the cost-effective DOTS treatment strategy, and that everything possible needed to be done to ensure universal access to

it. "This is more than just a matter for ministers of health – we need to move whole societies in the fight, and I have accepted the role of Global Ambassador to help spread that message," he said.

Gareth Thomas, MP and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for International Development, said Britain  has pledged £280 million for eradication of TB over a seven-year period and that it has provided £20 million to India so far.

Dr Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, described DOTS as one of the "great public health success stories of the past decade, having treated 13 million patients since WHO declared TB a global Emergency in 1993". However, he said, it has only slowed the growth of the epidemic.

"To stop it and begin reversing the trend we must nearly double the current number of patients treated under DOTS each year by the end of 2005," Espinal said. "We are therefore grateful to have A R Rahman as a Global Ambassador to mobilize support for this massive effort."